MIAMI/PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – The Obama administration and the United Nations are pressuring Haiti’s government to resolve a long-festering dispute over postponed elections in the face of anti-government protests across the impoverished Caribbean country.
U.S. and U.N. diplomats are in talks with Haiti’s government and opposition politicians aimed at reaching agreement in the next few weeks, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry may visit Haiti later this week, officials told Reuters.
The clock is ticking, with the terms of senators and lower house representatives ending on Jan. 12. A lack of agreement by then would effectively dissolve parliament, and would likely set off a national political crisis.
In recent weeks street protests about the elections and alleged government abuses have spread across the country, shutting down some towns and blocking major roads. Officials fear the protests will grow, and turn more violent, if a deal is not reached by Jan. 12.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the U.N. is making “maximum ef-forts” to reach an accord but is concerned about the lack of agreement on a framework for elections.
“The window of opportunity is fast closing,” he said.
U.S. officials have also raised red flags. “The continuing delay in scheduling long-overdue elections is a serious concern,” Thomas Adams, the U.S. State Department’s Haiti Special Coordinator, said during a congressional hearing in Washington last week.
Legislative and municipal elections have been held up by a dispute between the government of President Michel Martelly and a group of opposition senators over details of a proposed electoral law.
Municipal elections have been delayed for three years, while elections for a third of the Senate’s seats were to have been held in 2012.
Last week, Martelly, who has pledged to hold elections “as soon as possible,” created an 11-member commission to come up with proposals to break the deadlock.
Opposition leaders have accused Martelly of scheming to rule by decree during the final year of his term in order to manipulate presidential elections scheduled for next year. They say the government has not seriously engaged the opposition or offered reasonable concessions.
For its part, the government has accused the opposition of holding the country hostage and trying to sabotage democratic rule. In one statement, Information Minister Rudy Horiveaux described the opposition as “cockroaches” and “a spectacle, symptomatic of the stupidity of a certain retrograde political class.”
Haiti has a long history of convulsive elections and is still recovering from an earthquake nearly five years ago that leveled much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Some observers say the United States let the crisis drag on too long by seeming to side with the Martelly government, emboldening the fiery-tongued president, who once was a singer of bawdy folk songs known as “Sweet Mickey.”
“They coddled Martelly far too long … though that finally seems to be changing,” said Robert Maguire, a Haiti scholar at the George Washington University.U.S. officials have defended Martelly, noting that he enjoys a popularity rating hovering around 60 percent. “Haiti has made a lot of progress since the earthquake, but the electoral gridlock is adding to the current tensions,” said one senior U.S. State Department official.
“We believe Martelly is committed to making a deal, and we think they can make an agreement in time,” he said.
One plan under discussion: extending parliamentary terms until elections next summer, with presidential elections in November. Foreign donor countries, however, would prefer that Haiti hold legislative, municipal and presidential elections on one day next year, which would cut costs by half. It is estimated that if held separately each election would cost $30 million – money Haiti can ill afford.
Many in the international community, including key lenders such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, say Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe has run an efficient administration and has improved infrastructure, including rural roads.
But the country’s debt, which was forgiven after the earthquake, is mounting again, including more than $1.6 billion owed to Venezuela’s preferential Petrocaribe fuel program.
“Haiti is rotting, the lights are out, there is misery and they are wasting public money,” said Jean-Louis Exerge, who joined about 3,000 protesters who marched peacefully in the capital on Saturday calling for the government to resign.
